The Silent Ninja and the Brilliant ginger
by theirishleprechaun
Summary: A Snake Eyes and Scarlett pairing. if you prefer Scarlett with Duke or whoever else, then don't read. Enjoy!


**Scarlett and Snake Eyes FanFiction**

Chapter 1

Duke and Ripcord had been on the Joes' team for almost a year now. Ripcord also kept on with his ridiculous advances toward me. On one mission, after Cobra and Destro escaped, General Hawk sent me on a mission to go spy on their hideout; at least the building that we thought was their hideout. I had managed to enter the building and see who occupied it, yes, it was Cobra and Destro. I was finished with my mission and decided to find a different exit because someone could have seen me come in and they could be waiting for me to go back out. I heard a scuffle of feet and then silence. The hairs on the back of my neck raised and sent chill bumps down my spine. I slowly turned around to faintly see the outline of a Cobra soldier. He lifted the butt of his gun and smashed it against my cheek. My head snapped back and my vision went black.

The soldier grabbed me by my hair and dragged me to the control room where his two head honchos were waiting. They smiled. The soldier made me stand and then back stepped to stand on one side of the door. "Well, well, well, look what the cobra dragged in."

I glared up at his ugly deformed face.

"Ooo, this one has the charming temper of a red head…"

He let his fingers trail over the big bruise forming over my cheek and then as quick as the cobra that he was named after he whipped his hand away and then backhanded me, sprawling me across the floor. My eyes watered and my cheek burned with the recent inflicted pain. My hands balled into fists to keep from crying out.

"You will die at sunrise you stupid girl. I hope your buddies get the message, it'll be plain enough for their Neanderthal brains to understand."

He nodded at the soldier to take me away. The soldier dragged me away and threw me in a room with very high ceilings, no windows except for a small one too far up for me to use, or anything else that I could use to escape. He closed and locked the door behind him and I suppose he stood outside of the door on guard.

_Don't panic, your team knows that you were supposed to be back by twelve. And_, checking my watch, it was already half past twelve. They knew I was never late for anything, they would know that something had happened. _Deep breaths, in…and out…in…and out._

The tension in my body relaxed a bit and I pulled my legs into the criss-cross applesauce position. I rested my hands on my knees and continued taking deep breaths. Sometime later, I guess I had fallen asleep, I realized that the dark sky was now tinged with pink. _Oh god, I really am gonna die. Snake eyes_, I thought to him_, you probably don't know this, but I love you, I've been in love with you for a while now. I'm sorry I got caught on this stupid mission. Love you._

At almost the exact moment that I finished I heard a very quiet thump from the direction of the door, the time for my death was near. The door slowly slid open and I decided, I might as well go out fighting, so I headed for the door to hurt whichever cobra agent was there. Still mostly behind the door, I threw out a roundhouse kick to catch the idiot off guard. I wasn't expecting them to catch my foot and walk into the room. Snake Eyes released my foot and I hugged him tight.

"I thought you were one of them. I'm sorry."

He patted my back and then pointed outside the door. I nodded and we ran out of the room and snuck down the hallways. We were less than five yards away from an exit when I heard the mangled laugh that belonged to Cobra. "Fools, did you think I'd let you get away so easily? Well, you can just burn to cinders like I did. Ciao."

He threw a bomb with a timer on the ground and disappeared. The doors in front of us were locked. We ran around the building, trying to find an exit. We found a window that wasn't locked like the others and Snakes boosted me up and I tumbled out of the high window on the first floor. My balance was off and I fell heavily on my side. The breath whooshed out of me. Just as Snake Eyes was climbing out of the window, the bomb went off. The window shattered and Snake Eyes screamed. He fell on the ground and I crawled over to drag his body away. The building exploded and I covered his body with mine.

The building burned as the explosion ended. "Snakes, are you okay?"

He was silent and as I took off his mask to get a better look I saw the deep cuts that would become scars and the gaping wound at the hollow of his throat. "Oh no, no, no. Snakes, don't die on me, stay with me, come on."

I searched him for a communicator and screamed into the phone. "Help! Snakes is badly hurt. He has a wound on his throat and some on his face. Help, please."

I brushed his dark blonde hair out of his hurt face and tried to keep him from dying. I tore a strip off of my shirt and gently tied it around his neck to slow the flow of blood. Maybe twenty minutes later I heard a jet and as it landed Breaker hopped out. "How long has he been like this?"

"I don't know, maybe twenty minutes."

Breaker brought out a stretcher and loaded Snakes onto it. He took off my makeshift bandage and put on a real one. He tended to the cuts on his face and then we were all on the jet. "I have to sew his throat up right now or he will die of blood loss. He might even lose his voice forever. I'm going to need you to hold his head steady, just in case he wakes up and struggles."

I nodded and moved to hold his head. Breaker got out some medical tools and started to work. Snakes woke and tried to move his head. I smoothed back his hair. "No, don't move. You got hurt and Breaker's fixing you up. Don't move."

He relaxed into my hands but I could feel his body tense every time Breaker pierced his skin with the needle. Breaker wound heavy bandages around Snakes' head until only his eyes and nose were left uncovered. "I'm done," he said. "I will have to fully examine him when we get to the pit though. As far as I saw, there is no infection."

He left us to the back of the jet. "Snakes, I'm so sorry. If I hadn't of been stupid enough to get caught you wouldn't have come for me and you wouldn't of been hurt."

My eyes started to water and my voice broke every three words or so. I thought Snakes would hate me for getting him hurt, but when my eyes met his blue ones I saw nothing but understanding in them. I hugged him and before I knew it we were at the pit and I helped Snakes out and into the medical wing. Breaker and a few surgeon buddies of his apologized but said that I had to leave because I wasn't Snakes' immediate family.

I paced outside of the operating room for what seemed like hours. My heart was filled with guilt and anxiousness. Not to mention the fact that I was wracked with worry. Finally, Breaker opened the door and stepped out to give me the results. "We repaired his wounds as much as we could, but the glass ruined his voice box, he will never be able to speak again. We did the best we could on his face, too, but he is still heavily scarred. You can see him now. And don't ask him about the mask covering his bandages, I think he feels embarrassed and maybe even ashamed about his scars."

He walked off down the hall and it took me a moment to digest what he had said. I cautiously opened the door and entered. Snakes was lying still on a hospital bed with a black mask and a visor covering his face. The mask almost reached to the base of his neck, but I could still see the thick bandage. I sat in the chair by him and tried to smile but it faltered and I started crying. I tried to pull myself together but the tears were relentless and I got up to go cry out of Snakes' sight. His hand caught mine and pulled me down to sit on the bed by him. He pulled me into a hug and rubbed my back. He even started rocking me from side to side. I raised an eyebrow.

"Do I look that young to you?"

He shrugged and I actually cracked a smile. I rolled my eyes and stood up. Snakes scribbled something on a pad that he got from the bedside table. _You've been up longer than I have. You need to rest, you can stay here if you want._

"No thanks, I'll sleep in my room. I've gotta feed the cat anyways. See you later." I waved and left the room. "Sorry," I whispered as the door closed. As I headed to my quarters Ripcord came up from behind me.

"Hey babe."

"Bye-bye."

I ran ahead to get away and when I reached my door I slammed it in his eager face. The cat meowed lazily when it realized that I was filling her bowl with her favorite cat food. She brushed my leg with her warm body. I petted her and then left to go to the cafeteria where all the human food was. Hoping that hotheaded Ripcord wouldn't see me, I quickly grabbed a bowl of tasty bean and bacon soup and a slice of toasted white bread. I snuck out the double doors and slunk to my room just in case Ripcord happened to be lurking in the hallway. Thankfully, he wasn't and I was able to get to my room quickly. I ate my meal and then watched the news. I fell asleep while the TV was on and didn't wake up until morning.

Chapter 2

As soon as I'd showered and eaten breakfast I went to visit Snakes. He was asleep, I could hear his faint breathing. Even with the mask on I could tell that his face was peaceful. I imagined touching his face but I knew that even the slightest touch would wake him up. I sat down in the seat that I'd been in yesterday and watched Snakes as he slept. I got up and looked out the window that opened above the aquatic battle field. Some Joes; one of them probably being Duke, were already training some more. When I turned around to look back at Snakes I saw that he had moved, his head was propped up and the notepad was in his hand with some new words on it.

_How are you feeling today?_

"I'm alright, you?"

_Better, Breaker will let me leave this room in a few hours._

"Really?"

He nodded.

"That's awesome! What do you wanna do when you're released?"

_I don't know, maybe we can go play with the camouflage suits._

"Are you sure?"

He got out of bed and nodded.

"Fine. I'll go yell at Breaker to let us ditch."

Snakes stayed in his room while I went to find Breaker. He was in his quarters. "Scarlett? What are you doing here?"

"Snakes wants to get busted out of the medical wing earlier than he was scheduled. Can you help us?"

"Yeah, I guess." We headed back to Snake Eyes. "I have to check his wounds to see how well they've healed since yesterday though. After that he's home free."

Snakes was waiting patiently like he always does. Breaker got him to take off his mask. I saw the bandages, Breaker took them off and I saw the raw, still pink scars that covered more than half of his face. He turned his head away from my gaze. Breaker then took off the bandage wrapped around Snakes' throat. It was even redder than the scars on his face.

"You will have to keep the bandage on your neck for at least a week, you can wear your mask without the bandages. Now that this is through, I'm going to go finish my cooking show."

Snake Eyes had his mask back on before I could look at him a second time. I was saddened that he didn't trust me enough to look at me without a mask on. He hopped up and we took the elevator up a few floors to the storage for the camo suits. I picked out my favorite out of the few female versions of the suit and slipped it on over my tank top and lounge shorts. These suits make you invisible by photographing the images behind you and placing them in front of you so that you are virtually invisible.

We were going to fight hand-to-hand combat with the twist of being invisible. When we took out starting positions and bowed to each other we slipped on our masks and began. I could sense Snakes to my right and almost delivered a roundhouse kick to his ribs. But, as the genius ninja that he is, he was prepared for it and caught my foot, again, I should say.

As we were fighting it brought back a memory from when Snakes and I had first fought. I had known that he was the stronger fighter, but he had let me win. We had been fighting in front of the other Joes and he knew that some of them teased me when I lost. That was when we first started hanging out.

I blocked two of Snakes' punches but he caught me off guard by hooking his leg around mine and pulling it out from under me. I fell on the ground and Snakes fell on me. He usually just got up immediately, but this time he stayed down for a minute more. I could feel his stomach pressing down on mine and mine on his whenever either one of us breathed. He leapt up and lent his hand to help me. On the second round we took off the camo suits and fought in plain sight. I took one wrong move and as I moved back up into a standing position Snakes appeared behind me and wrapped each of his arms around each of mine behind my back. One of his feet was planted in front of mine so that he could trip me if I tried to wiggle out of his hold. I moved my foot, wiggled free of his grasp, and slid under Snakes. As I came out from under him I grabbed both of his ankles and sent him tumbling down.

I rolled to the side and then got up and crouched over his chest. "One on one, Snakes."

He never really liked losing, even if it was to his favorite pupil, that would be me. He rolled over so that he came out on top and got off of me. He stayed in the crouching position and I got up. Snakes whipped one of his legs around in a circle, knocking me off of my feet and flat on my back again.

Using sign language, he said 'I won' and turned to leave.

I did that cool move where you're on the ground and then lean back on your hands and then vault yourself off of your hands and onto your feet. I stood up straight and then ran after Snakes. I jumped on his back playfully and used his shoulders as handles to keep myself on his back. He took my arms and brought me over his head to stand in front of him.

"You stinking cheater, the match was over when I pinned you to the ground."

I could see his eyes roll behind the visor. He also smiled under the fabric of his mask. We were hungry and went to the cafeteria. When we were in line I rested my bent elbow on his shoulder, I had some trouble with that, he's like two or three inches taller. We got our meals, but since he had to remove his mask to eat he left for his quarters alone, I offered to come with him but he didn't want me there. I sat at a table in the corner and played with my food. I had lost my appetite and left to go to the gym.

The oversized room was empty. I got on the clothes that I wore while working out and began to bully a punching bag. As I hit it I spoke whenever a fist met the target I would spit out a word.

"Why…can't…you…trust…me! Why…are…you…be…ing…so…stup…id. Aren't …we…friends? Were…we?"

I didn't realize that there were tears pouring down my cheeks as punched the sack. I wiped them away and moved to the small ham sized punch bag and began to circle my hands around each other as they smacked the bag. I worked myself tired and didn't stop until I was close to dropping on the floor. When I got to my room I took a long shower, got into my pajamas, and went to bed early.

The next day I tried to forget what had happened when lunch came. However, Snakes did the same thing every time he ate and I always got irritated that he didn't trust me enough to eat with me. I never let him see me let out my anger because I knew that it wouldn't help his condition. We did the same routine for maybe a month but one day a little after dinner had ended I found Snakes sitting at a table in the deserted library. He nodded as I came up to him and asked how my dinner had been.

"It was fine, the Twinkies were delicious and sweet. Did you get one?"

_No, I got a bowl of pudding_.

"Oh. So…was your dinner okay?"

He nodded again.

"Can I give you a hug?" Don't ask me questions, I don't know why I asked either.

He tilted his head to the side and then after a moment he said, '_Okay, I guess'_.

I stepped forward and let him wrap his arms around me. My eyes drifted closed and I rested my head on his chest. He pulled me closer to him and the both of us were silent. I picked my head up and replaced it with one of my hands. Snakes didn't move so I moved my hand up higher until it was at the edge of his mask. I felt him stiffen, but I let lefty come up and the both of my hands began to creep under the fabric and pull up the mask. Snakes' hands caught my wrists and pulled them away.

"Snakes…" I complained. "What is wrong with you? Don't you trust me enough to let me see your face, even for a moment?" He sighed. "Come on, please?" I gave him my best puppy dog eyes ever and waited. He dropped his head in defeat and gave a heavy sigh. "Thank you."

I left my fingers pry the mask upward and slowly brought it over his jaw and then past his nose and then finally all the way off. I didn't gasp, Snake Eyes would probably take it the wrong way. I gazed in wonder at his scarred face. Yes, the thick scars covering ninety percent of his face would steer most people away at a first glance, but to me I saw past that, like the scars weren't even there. Even though he was blemished he was beautiful to me. Our eyes locked and my heart sped up. I slowly let my hand, light as a butterfly's wings, touch Snakes' jaw line. I ran my fingers up toward the corner of his jaw and then gently cupped his cheek. Snakes brought up one of his hands to cover mine.

I rose up on my tiptoes and moved my head closer to his. I hesitated, to see if he would object. And when he didn't I let our lips meet and wrapped my free arm around his neck. His lips were warm and inviting and the heat pouring off of his body felt amazing. He let go of my hand and let his arms wrap tightly around my waist. My hand that was on his cheek moved to rest on the back of his neck, with my fingers curled in some of his soft hair. Our lips moved together perfectly, just like oil and water, both mixing but never completely giving into the other. The both of us are competitive I'll admit. Then again you probably noticed that when we were dueling about a month ago.

My lungs began to burn and I pulled away and leaned on the back of a chair. I waited a moment for my breathing to slow. When I looked at Snakes I saw that he was looking at me too. I hugged him again, letting my arms go under his and my hands coming up to cup his shoulders. "I love you."

He looked down at me and mouthed the words 'I love you too.'

My eyes watered in relief and I smiled up at him. We kissed again and both smiled when we pulled apart for a second time. He put his mask back on and we left the library. I put an arm around his waist and leaned my head against his shoulders, as we opened the door and he wrapped an arm around my shoulders. I saw the people in the hallway staring at us as we passed, one of them being Ripcord who looked very jealous and annoyed. We went to the rec room for a few hours but then dinner came. We were going to eat in Snake Eyes' room but I had to get a soda and told Snakes to go on ahead. I got it and hurried over to Snakes' room. Ripcord caught me a few paces away from Snakes' door.

"Why did you go for Mr. Scarface when you could have me?"

I glared at him, "because he's not conceited or a jerk like you and he's actually sweet and nice to people other than himself. Unlike you who is the direct opposite except for maybe when you're with Duke, only because you've known him for years."

"You don't know what you're missing, woman. I suggest that you change you're mind if you're smart like everyone here has been led to believe."

"If you were smart you would see that I'm far from interested in your offer and you'd leave me alone."

"I'll give you one last chance and you'd better take it."

"Thanks, but no thanks."

"So you are choosing the scarred mime over me?!"

"I've already chosen. I made up my mind the first time you attempted to flirt with me."

I turned around, letting my hair whip the arrogant idiot in the face. I opened the door and closed it, knowing that Snake Eyes had probably heard every word. He was sitting at his desk looking at me.

_You turned down his offer for me._ Not a question, but a statement.

"If he asked me day after day after day, I would pick you and only you every time he asked. You know I love you. You shouldn't let jerks like him make you doubt my feelings for you, ever."

He took off his mask and began eating. I grabbed a chair and dragged it next to him. I sat and began eating. When we were done he lay down on the bed and I curled up next to him and started playing with a stray piece of string on the neck of his suit. He kissed my forehead and I shivered. He told me that there was going to be a mission briefing tomorrow at eight hundred hours.

I looked at the time and realized that it was time for me to leave. I kissed him one more time said goodbye and went to my room to feed the cat and go to bed.

The next morning we went to the briefing and General Hawk had us do some quick training before leaving. The last pair who was fighting hand-to-hand combat was Ripcord and I. The both of us were evenly matched but then Ripcord tripped me and I fell, landing hard on my right ankle. I barely winced at the fading pain, but when I tried to get up and grab at Ripcord I fell back. I would have hurt my ankle further but then Snakes was there and he caught me. I tried to take another swing at Ripcord but Snakes swept me up into his arms and walked us out of the room.

I crossed my arms over my chest and steamed off my anger in Snakes' grip. I felt his worry for me emanating off of him. "I'm fine, I'm just mad at Rip. That idiot thrall!"

I could feel him shaking with laughter. I smiled just a bit and he continued to laugh until we got to the medical wing. Breaker looked at my ankle. He ran his hands over the now swollen ankle. As gentle as he was, I still hissed when his fingers brushed the inside of my ankle.

"I'd say you're right. You sprained you're ankle."

He put a bag of ice on it and I gasped as the cold ice touched my skin. The chill was stinging against my skin but I endured. After the swelling had gone down some he wrapped some stiff bandages around it and clipped it in place. He also gave me a pair of crutches to lean on since my ankle would protest every time I leaned on it. I was still mad, obviously now I couldn't go to France.

Snake Eyes was hesitant to leave for the mission but I encouraged him and we both knew General Hawk would get mad if he stayed behind because of me. I gave him a good luck kiss and he left with the others.

**Thrall****-** Norse for 'slave'.


End file.
